Friday, June 28, 2002 | 11:13 a.m.
Culinary Union leader said today the chances of reaching contract agreements with Boyd Gaming and Fitzgeralds before this weekend's strike deadline are threatened because the union is "miles apart" in talks with other downtown casinos.
"There's no question about it," John Wilhelm, the union's international president, said this morning. "Boyd Gaming and Fitzgeralds have a concern about remaining competitive downtown."
Both companies expressed interest in reaching new five-year agreements with the union, but they do not want to sign deals that will give their downtown competitors an unfair advantage over them, Wilhelm said.
The union was to meet today with Boyd Gaming, which owns three union hotels -- the Stardust on the Strip and the Fremont and Main Street Station downtown. It is scheduled to sit down with Fitzgeralds on Saturday.
Wilhelm said it was possible that Boyd Gaming and Fitzgeralds could be hit by a walkout downtown if agreements can't be reached by the midnight Sunday strike deadline.
That, he said, would be "unfortunate" considering both companies have approached talks with the union in a cordial manner.
Wilhelm said "there's no settlement in sight" with six downtown hotels that have taken a hard line in the negotiations -- Binion's Horseshoe, Four Queens, El Cortez, Las Vegas Club, Plaza and Western. The Castaways on Boulder Highway also is part of that group.
"If I had to bet, I'd say there will be a strike," Wilhelm said.
Both sides modified their positions this week, but not enough to cool down the tough rhetoric.
The union submitted a scaled-back version of its Strip contract to downtown hotels that kept its health plan intact, but offered concessions on wage increases. And the downtown hotels withdrew their proposal to put union employees on company health plans, but kept several "deal-breaking" issues related to job security on the table.
Attorney Gregory Kamer, who represents the downtown hotels, agreed with Wilhelm that both sides are far apart heading into the strike deadline.
"The union bosses are refusing to budge for whatever reason," he said. "The modified proposal they presented to us earlier in the week still is unaffordable. It's beyond the ability of my clients to pay."
But Kamer added: "We're prepared to bargain round-the-clock on Saturday and Sunday to avoid a strike."
Wilhelm said the union also was willing to talk.
"We're going to work very hard between now and midnight Sunday to try to reach an agreement to save downtown," he said. "I don't think downtown could survive a strike and that's a very sobering notion."
Wilhelm said both Boyd Gaming and Fitzgeralds are helping the union figure out an overall settlement downtown.
"They know that a strike in part of downtown would hurt all of downtown," he said.
Boyd Gaming spokesman Rob Stillwell said lines of communication are open with the other downtown hotels.
He said he did not want to discuss the status of negotiations between his company and the union until after today's negotiations.
The strike so far, Stillwell said, has not hurt Fourth of July reservations at the Fremont and Main Street Station.
"We haven't noticed a decline in reservations, but we're asked on a regular basis as to whether the issue has been resolved," he said. "We're expecting to be real busy over the Fourth."
Horseshoe owner Becky Behnen said her hotel hasn't been affected by the strike talk, but she expects reservations will decline if a walkout occurs.
Another Horseshoe executive reported that the hotel is 70 percent booked for the Fourth of July, which is normal a week in advance.
Wilhelm said the union understands that downtown can't be asked to take the same rich contract as the megaresorts on the Strip and that union is prepared to compromise as long as it doesn't harm the health benefits of its members.
"There's no question that some of those properties have economic challenges, but our members are not willing to subsidize those challenges," he said
The union is preparing to set up picket lines at 3 p.m. Saturday at all unsettled hotels downtown for the 33 hours heading into the Sunday strike deadline.
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